


Below His Window

by BlackKyber



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, kylux - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Fusion, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren Fluff, Arranged Marriage, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluffy Ending, Force Bond (Star Wars), Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Gay Male Character, Getting to Know Each Other, I Ship It, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Kylux - Freeform, Love, M/M, Prince Ben Solo, Protective Kylo Ren, Romantic Fluff, Short & Sweet, Sneaking Out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-14
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2019-08-01 15:02:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16286801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackKyber/pseuds/BlackKyber
Summary: Prince Ben Organa has been avoiding marriage for years. He feels that nobody would be a suitable match for him, so he studiously avoids or sabotages all the potential spouses that his parents set up for him.One day his luck runs out, when the King of a distant planet proposes that his son would be a perfect match for the wiry Ben. Unable to talk his way out of the situation, Ben begrudgingly prepares for his upcoming nuptials ... when a surprise visit from an unexpected source shifts the balance of everything.





	Below His Window

Ben sighed to himself as he added another item to his trunk, sneezing a bit as a stray spore of dust floated into his nose.

He had been going through his belongings for the past few days, choosing to do this task himself rather than make use of the servants. Tonight would be his last night here, and tomorrow, he was to be wed and taken away to Arkanis, by ... by his new husband.

Ben had heard for years, that when he came of age, he would be required to marry one of the princesses of the foreign planets, in order to strengthen the reach of the Alderaani kingdom. His mother, Queen Leia, had been incorporating the concept of marriage into all of his bedtime stories since Ben was a child. His father, while not as involved with Ben’s upbringing as his wife, did the same thing.

But years passed, and Ben turned 14, then 15, then 16, and still nobody had been found for him. It wasn’t for a lack of trying; his parents held lavish balls in the palace every summer since Ben had become a teenager, attempting to match him with a suitable princess. But Ben, was difficult. He didn’t want to be forced into a union with somebody he didn’t love, and he refused to take any of the possible young women as candidates for his affections. Eventually word of his hostile nature spread, and fewer and fewer rulers of distant lands would respond to his parents’ invitations to find their son a spouse.

Eventually, they gave it up.  
And Ben, was happy.

He spent his days indulging in his hobbies in his chambers, and came and went as he pleased, free from duty and responsibility. The years passed, and Ben believed that his mother had finally accepted the idea that he would remain unmarried, when they started receiving visits from messengers from the court of LaBu, on the planet Arkanis.

Apparently the regent there, King Brendol Hux, was interested in expanding his lands. He had heard about the unwed son of Queen Leia, and was certain that his son, Armitage, would be a perfect match for Prince Organa. If the two were to marry, it would unite their territories, making their combined kingdom one of the largest in all the galaxy.

Ben had scoffed at this idea, at first. He had always been told that one day he would find a Princess, not a Prince.

“The court of LaBu recognizes same-sex unions as being valid, and it turns out, ours does, as well, son,” he had been told by his mother. “Love comes in all shapes and forms, my dear. And you WILL learn to love him, the same way your father and I learned to love each other.”

“But this ... this man, I know nothing about him.”

“He’s older than you, he’s educated, he’s musically talented ...”

“Why can’t I meet him, then, before?”

“It’s traditional in the court of LaBu, for a groom to not meet his intended, until the day of.”

Ben argued back and forth with his mother for weeks on the subject, until, finally, she wore him down to the idea. King Brendol, his son, and their entourage had arrived a week ago, to participate in feasts and celebrations of the upcoming nuptials. Ben and Hux, however, were left out of everything, as tradition dictated they couldn’t see each other, until their wedding day.

Which was, of course, tomorrow.

So Ben sat going through his belongings, choosing what to stay behind and what to take, when a faint sound below his window gave him pause.

Unusual, considering his chambers were at the top of a very tall stone tower.

He got off the floor and went to the window, thinking it was perhaps a bird. He opened his window and looked down ... and nearly fainted in shock.

It wasn’t a bird.  
It was a _man_.

Ben backed away from the window as the man’s hands came into view, grasping unto the sill and pulling himself in. He landed on a heap on the floor, out of breath and seeming very tired. He sat up slowly, looking around himself in a daze. Ben wasn’t afraid, merely curious. The man was thin, and pale, attired in simple black garments. He had short, straight, red-blonde hair ... and the bluest eyes that Ben had ever seen in his life.

“Hello,” Ben said, somewhat awkwardly, as the man slowly got to his feet. “Are you lost?”

The man shook his head, straightening out his rumpled clothing. “I hope not. One of the curriers below told me that this was your window. You ARE Prince Organa, aren’t you?”

“Yes. But call me Ben. And you are —?”

“I’m ... I’m Prince Armitage Hux. Just Hux, though. Your ... your fiancé.”

“Oh!”, Ben exclaimed, in genuine surprise. Before he could stop himself, he blurted out “But you’re not an old man!”

Hux burst into laughter, and Ben couldn’t help but notice how pleasant it sounded.

“No, I’m not an old man. I’m only 22. You’re not as young as I expected, how old are you?”

“I’m 19.”

Hux looked around himself and sat down on one of Ben’s chairs. Ben sat down beside him, cautiously.

“So I imagine I must be breaking a thousand rules of protocol, by being here. But ... I had to meet you, Ben. I had to at least have a conversation with you, before ... before tomorrow.”

Ben nodded. “I understand. If they didn’t keep me locked down like a prisoner, I would have attempted to find you, as well. Smart, by the way, scaling up the tower like that. If you had tried the doors you would have found those horrible guards posted at every turn.”

“Ugh, I know. Just getting out of my own chambers was a hassle.”

Having caught his breath a bit, he now looked around Ben’s chambers. His eyes were drawn to the hundreds of paintings hung around the walls, and he got up from his seat, moving in a slow circle around the room in order to see them all.

“You’re a patron of the arts, I see. And you have good taste; these are all exquisite.”

Ben could feel himself blush, as he answered, “Thank you; I did them myself.”

Hux turned around and looked at him, startled. “ _You_ did? Which ones?”

“All of them.”

Hux started to look again, seeming as though he was flabbergasted by Ben’s revelation.

“This is awful,” he muttered to himself. Before Ben could ask what he meant by that, Hux faced him again, saying, somewhat sadly,

“So you’re talented as well. I’m sorry, you’re getting the short end of the stick in this marriage; I can’t do ANYTHING like this.”

Ben shook his head, and timidly placed a hand on Hux’s arm, to comfort him.

“That can’t be true; my mother told me that you’re a gifted musician.”

“Big deal; anyone can pick up something and play it.”

“Not true. **I** can’t, and maker knows I’ve tried,” he said, gesturing to the dusty instruments along his southern wall. “Some people are good at some things, some people, at others.”

Hux let out a sigh, and nodded. “You’re right. Thanks, Ben, that makes me feel better.”

A sudden idea came to Ben, and he stood up, going to his closet.

“Let’s get out of here.”

“What?”

“Let’s get out of here. Me and you. We can sneak outside of the castle grounds, to the city. We can spend the day together, getting to know each other. Would you like that?”

A slow smile dawned on Hux’s face, but still, he held back. 

“I’d like it, but is it possible? I don’t think I could take that wall again even if I tried. And there are people everywhere below, preparing for tomorrow. How will we get past them?”

Ben finally found what he had been searching for in the closet, and he tossed one to Hux. Hux looked at it curiously; it was an oversized black cloak, with a long hood. Ben had one just like it in his own hands, and he was putting it on.

“Put that on,” Ben instructed as he pulled his own over his head. “I know several back hallways in the castle we can go down, where there won’t be anyone to see us. Once we get outside, we’ll pull up the hoods, and make our way to the back entrance of the courtyard. After that, we’ll be free.”

Hux eagerly began shrugging into his own cloak now, excitement turning his cheeks a warm pink. 

“Let’s go.”

*** *** ***  
Ben’s plan worked perfectly. They fled the castle with relative ease, and once they were off of the grounds and en route to the city, each man breathed a little easier.

“It’s so nice out here,” Hux observed as they walked along the dusky road. “So much sunshine.”

“Does it rain a lot on Arkanis?”

“In the southern plains, yes. But we live in the north. The weather there is fairly moderate. Still, I don’t get outside of the castle much.”

“Why not?”

“My father has always had me on a rigid schedule. Music lessons, private tutors for my education, and he hosts countless functions, which I’m expected to be the face of.”

Ben nodded in understanding. “That sounds a bit like my life. Mom doesn’t like me leaving the palace grounds; says it can be dangerous. Right now is the first time I’ve been able to ‘escape’ in, well, months.”

They were within the city now, and right away several food stands caught Ben’s eye. He told Hux to wait for him as he went to buy something from a Gomorrean manning a small, floating white booth.

“What is it?”, Hux asked when he came back, looking at the strange items in his hands skeptically.

“It’s a delicacy native to Terra, called ice cream. You scoop it out and eat it with the little utensil. But not too fast; it’s very cold.”

“Why is yours a different color than mine?”

“Each of ours is flavored by different berries. Mine is farrberry, yours is starberry.”

So Hux took a deep breath, then took a slow, cautious bite. A smile immediately spread over his face. “This is really good!”

Ben smiled as well, pleased that Hux liked it. 

“It is,” he said, taking another bite of his own. “I just wish I could have it all the time.”

“Why can’t you?”

“Well, I’ve never encountered this food off-planet before, and, since you’d never heard of it, I very much doubt there’s any on Arkanis.”

“You know what? If you’re coming to be with me, we should change that. I want you to feel comfortable when you’re there.”

Ben looked sideways at Hux, touched that he cared enough to say something like that. Instead of saying that, however, he merely took another bite of his ice cream and asked,

“Tell me about it. About Arkanis. Is it anything like here?”

They had reached a very wide, green field, and Kylo took off his cloak, spreading it along the ground. He figured they were far enough away from the castle so that he wouldn’t be recognized. He gestured for Hux to sit beside him, as he waited for the redhead’s answer.

“It is, but it isn’t. There’s my fathers palace, and one that they’ve built for the two of us. Beyond that is a cluster of large villages that make up the population, and past that, green. Forests and mountains as far as the eye can see. We’re fortunate, though, in that I was able to convince my father to build OUR castle by one of the few lakes that we have. It’s beautiful, and so soothing to listen to.”

“That sounds lovely,” Ben said. He closed his eyes and tried to envision what Hux was saying. “We don’t have many bodies of water here, and what few we do have are largely inaccessible.”

“By the water is my favorite place in all the galaxy,” Hux said, his voice having gotten lower. “We — we used to have a big stream that ran the entire length of my father’s castle, when I was a child.”

“What happened to it?”

“He had it dammed up, when — when my mother passed.”

Ben opened his eyes now, and looked at Hux. 

“Can I ask why?”

Hux nodded. “Yes. It’s — well, I guess the water reminded him too much of my mother. She was sick for a long time before she went, and bedridden for almost the entire last year of her life. But no matter how ill she was, she’d have my father or one of the servants take the two of us to sit in the sunshine beside the stream. We’d stay there for as long as she could tolerate it, and she’d watch me play in the water.”

Here he paused, huskily clearing his throat. Ben looked away tactfully, sensing that Hux was trying to get himself under control. After what seemed like a long time, Hux finished,

“I was 7 when she passed. The years go by and my memory of her fades, but one thing I never forget is how happy her face looked, when we were by the stream.”

Ben waited a few seconds, then leaned over and put his arms around Hux’s shoulders, squeezing lightly.

“Thank you for telling me that, Hux. I look forward to seeing the lake by our home. I’m afraid you’ll have to teach me to swim, though; I look like a drowning womp-rat anytime I go in water above my ankles.”

He had said that last part, to try and fuse some humor back into the situation. It worked; Hux laughed, and picked up the remainder of his ice cream.

“Deal.”

When they finished, they stood back up and headed into the city once more. They approached a marketplace, and Ben put his hood back on, just in case.

They wandered amongst the many stalls, where all sorts of humans and sentients were calling out their wares to passers by. One woman was selling intricate pieces of jewelry, strung with beads ‘made from the finest stars in the universe. A man hawked homemade brews and potions ‘sure to put a spring in your step and hair on your chest’.

One stand they came to had Hux excited. A woman stood in front of a basket of squirming, mewing animals. Ben has never seen anything like them before, but Hux —

“Kittens! Maker, they’re kittens!”, he exclaimed, rushing over. Ben followed, confused.

“What’s a kitten?”

Hux put his hand into the basket, and eagerly stroked the warm fur of the moving beasts. 

“A kitten is a baby version of a cat, an animal that many people commonly keep as pets. I always wanted one, but my father doesn’t like them.”

“They’re quite cute, aren’t they?”, Ben asked, looking more closely. The enamored look on Hux’s face answered Ben’s question far better than Hux’s words did. 

“How much are these?”, Ben asked the woman.

“5 credits each.”

Ben dug around in his pockets, and came up with a 5C note. “Pick one, Hux.”

Hux whipped his head up, his eyes full of youthful excitement. “Really?!”

“Really. Consider it a wedding gift. I’ll pay a messenger to take him back to the palace, and when we go to Arkanis, he’ll come with us.”

Hux leapt at Ben and hugged him so hard that the latter nearly fell over. Ben was surprised, but he hugged him back, smiling ear to ear.

After a few moments of deliberation, Hux chose a small orange and white kitten from the basket, cradling it in his palm.

“This one,” he told the lady, grinning. “It’s beautiful. Can you tell me if it’s a male or a female?”

The woman gently lifted the cat up and peered at its underside. “Female. Is that okay?”

Hux nodded. “It’s perfect. I think ... I think I’ll call her Millicent.”

Ben found a young boy who was happy to deliver the cat back to the palace, in exchange for a few credits. He instructed the youth about whom to give the animal, watched as he took off, and then he and Hux continued on their day.

“That was so ... so sweet of you, Ben.”

Ben shrugged. “It’s nothing, really.”

“It’s far from nothing. I just wish I had a ‘wedding gift’ for you.”

Grinning, Ben said, “Well, how about you ... buy me a drink?”

Hux looked up and noticed that they were outside a cantina. He held back, a bit nervous, as he told Ben “I’ve never been in one of these places before.”

“Neither have I. But I hear the servants speak of it all the time. It can be our first time, together.”

So Hux followed him in.

It was dark in here, much darker than the bright sunshine outside, and Hux had to pause a moment, to wait for his eyes to adjust. This place was populated by mostly humans, with several many-armed aliens standing behind the bar, delving out food and drinks to customers. 

Ben reached back and grasped Hux’s hand, gently pulling him through the crowd of people until they reached the bar.

“What’ll it be, Sir?”, the creature asked him, in stilted Basic.

“We’ll both have the Corellian punch,” Ben said confidently. The man mixed several colorful liquids into two tall glasses, then brought them over to the duo.

“Ten credits.”

Hux paid the barkeep, and then raised his glass. 

“What should we drink to?”

“The future.”

They clinked their glasses together lightly, then each took a healthy swig of their drink. Ben’s eyes widened in amazement.

“Holy Maker, that’s strong!”, Ben exclaimed, laughing. He took another slower, more cautious sip, before saying, “But really, really tasty.” He looked up, and was shocked that Hux was already halfway finished with his glass.

“You must not drink a lot,” Hux observed, smiling. “The wine on Arkanis tastes a lot like this.”

Ben grinned and shook his head. “No, I don’t drink a lot. My mother and father don’t really approve of it, and especially not for me, since I did all that Jedi training when I was a kid.”

“Jedi training?”

“Yeah,” Ben says, sighing. “It’s kind of a long story.”

Hux put his glass down and turned his body all the way towards Ben. “Tell me. Please.”

“Okay. Um, well, to start, you know my mother wasn’t born an Alderaani Princess, she was born on Coruscant, along with her twin brother, my uncle Luke, to a woman who was a senator during the time of the galactic republic. But her birth mother died, and she and my uncle were separated. My uncle was taken in by their father’s stepbrother, and my mother was taken by her birth mothers friend, Bail Organa, who was king of Alderaan. My uncle eventually found his way to becoming a Jedi, because ... because the Force runs strong in our family. Because of my grandfather.”

“Who was your grandfather?”, Hux asked, fascinated.

Speaking in a low voice, Ben told him, “Darth Vader.”

Hux was shocked; he had studied a great deal of history, and had always been most interested in the Skywalker family, and its impact on the politics of the galaxy. He had had no idea that Ben, was a part of that lineage.

“Please don’t think less of me, because of that,” Ben continued, still speaking quietly. “I know my grandfather was a bad man, but I’m not like that. My family isn’t like that.”

Hux put his hand on Ben’s shoulder. “I know that, Ben. We can’t help who we come from; all we can do is control where we’re going. But now I’m still curious: Jedi training?”

“Yes. My uncle taught me how to tap into my Force abilities when I was younger. The plan was to train me to be a Jedi, but ... that’s just not something I wanted.”

“But ... but you can use the Force?”

Ben looked around, to make sure that nobody was watching them. Satisfied that they were unobserved, he subtly put out his hand, towards a bowl of nuts that was sitting in the bar to the right of them. He furrowed his brow, and suddenly, inexplicably, the bowl began sliding across the counter on its own, and into Ben’s waiting hand.

“That’s ... that’s amazing!”

Ben blushed and shrugged. “It’s not really. You should see all the things my uncle can do.”

“Will he be at the wedding tomorrow? Will I get to meet him?”

Ben shrugged again, and put a handful of the peanuts into his mouth. He chewed a bit, then said,

“He’s hard to get in touch with. A bit of an eccentric type, Luke is. He frequently cuts himself off from technology, and communication, and goes off by himself into the unknown regions, to ‘meditate’.”

“Well, I can’t wait to meet him one day. I imagine he’d have all kinds of stories to tell.”

Ben rolled his eyes and took another sip of his drink. “Getting him to talk is easy. It’s getting him to shut up that’s the tricky part,” he joked, setting both of them to laughing. As they laughed, Ben found himself taking several long, appreciative glances at Hux. He ... he was really quite handsome. And his lips were ...

He saw that Hux saw him staring, and quickly averted his gaze. He looked around and spotted an empty table, with a dejarik board. “You want to have a game?”, he asked, nodding towards it.

“I’d like to, but I don’t know how to play.”

Ben finished his drink and stood up. “Let me teach you,” he said, holding out his hand.

Hux smiled, and took it.

*** *** ***  
“Today is probably the most fun I’ve had, in a long time,” Hux said, shyly. They had made it back into the palace grounds just as the sun was setting. They stopped first to make sure the kitten had arrived safely; then, Ben had walked Hux to his chamber doors, and now was bidding him goodbye.

“Me, too. I think ... I feel like, this can work between us. This marriage, I mean. I feel like you won’t just be my husband; you’ll be my friend. Do ... do you feel that way, too?”

Hux nodded, a beautiful smile on his face. “I do, as well.”

He pulled Ben close and hugged him warmly, and Ben felt like he was melting, in Hux’s arms. When he pulled away, something about the sweet look on Hux’s face made Ben’s heart do a mighty flip in his chest. 

Quickly, before his bravery could leave him, he took Hux’s face between his hands, and pressed a gentle, tender kiss into his lips. Now it was Hux’s turn to feel like he was melting, and he leaned heavily into Ben’s touch, smiling into their kiss.

The sound of footsteps approaching from the far hall made them both part from each other, and Ben sighed. He didn’t want to leave Hux, but he had to, before someone discovered them together before the wedding.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” Ben told him, reaching out to trail a finger lightly across Hux’s cheek. Then he quickly pulled his hood back up and walked away, just as the owners of the footsteps (servants, it turned out) came into view.

When he got closer to his chambers, Ben pulled the hood back off, revealing his dazzling smile.

He knew that he had more packing to do. He knew that his mother had likely tried to find him during the day, and would undoubtedly come to his chambers at some point tonight and yell at him about ‘disappearing’. He knew that tomorrow he would be primped and preened and made to wear the awful, stiff, uncomfortable clothing that made up traditional Alderaani wedding attire.

But, suddenly, none of that seemed to matter.

He had been dreading tomorrow for so long ...

... yet now, it felt like the sun couldn’t rise fast enough, on the next chapter of his life.


End file.
